5 Minutes of Common Sense: Kerry will get no concessions, “Moscow doesn’t believe American tears”

John Kerry’s visit to Moscow has aroused great interest in mass media and on social networks. Once again the “everything-has-failed-ers” have activated and echoed Ukrainian propaganda in positing that Putin is being brought a “black mark” from Washington and that John Kerry himself will personally hand it to the Russian president. Once again. This is not even funny anymore. When the head of the State Department comes to Russia (and he has been flying in quite often recently), conspiracy theories about this “black mark” and some kind of horrifying ultimatum to be given to the Russian president appear online. If this were true, then Putin would probably already have a whole wall in his office hung with these ultimatums and his collection of “black marks” could be made into a museum of the Kremlin. These conspiracy theories, of course, help collect a bunch of likes and comments, but in reality they don’t hold any water.

The reality before us is that even the State Department itself is in the midst of a fierce conflict between Kerry and the majority of the department’s employees whom he inherited from Hillary Clinton. They are supported by the hawks in the American intelligence services and also the US Democratic Party. As a result of this conflict, funny situations take place. For example, 50 high-ranking diplomats from the State Department wrote a letter to Obama demanding that he start bombing Assad, and John Kerry said that this letter was a private opinion which, considering everything, is his own, but at the same time he has made clear that no one is going to be bombed. Just recently, Kerry public admitted that two groups of Syrian rebels considered by the Americans to be the “moderate democratic opposition” are in fact Islamic terrorists, as was repeatedly claimed by Russian diplomats. Then the State Department apparatus tried to take back Kerry’s words while the American publication Business Insider called Kerry’s speech “pro-Russian.”

There’s yet another piece to the mosaic. As you all know, the FBI has decided not to open a criminal case against Hillary Clinton for using her personal mail server to transfer secret documents during her tenure as secretary of state. In fact, this clearly illegal decision by the FBI is disapproved of by 57% of Americans. Despite the fact that the FBI considers the case closed, John Kerry has decided to make an unpleasant surprise for Mrs. Clinton. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a set of emails had been published which Clinton had kept on her private servers. Many journalists expect that these emails which Clinton tried to hide from the public might turn out to have a bunch of interesting things. For example, they might contain more proof that Clinton actively traded her lobbying services in exchange for generous donations made to the Clinton’s family foundation.

The following conclusion begs itself: Kerry cannot bring Putin any “black marks” and can’t even present Washington’s position to Putin because Washington doesn’t have a single position. A real war is ongoing in which John Kerry himself is participated. The US Secretary of State has most likely brought the position of his clan and nothing more to Moscow. This does not mean that nothing can be negotiated with Kerry, however. Just the opposite. It’s just that the US might not comply with these agreements. It may very well be that the US Secretary of State has come to complain that he was strongly pressured by the hawks and that he heeds to seek concessions from Putin on Syria and Ukraine. I would venture to suggest that he won’t get any concessions whatsoever because Moscow does not believe in tears, especially not American ones.